copyright 1955; by Pierre La Mure - author of Moulin Rouge; "A novel based on the life of Felix and Cecile Mendelssohn"; Book Club Edition; Random House publishers, New York; hardbound in red boards with mustard lettering on spine; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket quite good with minimal edge wear.
 
Description -
Felix Mendelssohn was one of the outstanding men of his time. In addition to his great personal charm, he had the good fortune to be a member of one of the wealthiest banking families of Europe; and so great was his musical talent that by the time he was twenty he was already famous as a composer and conductor.

This is a story of love; Mendelssohn's love for the fiery Italian prima donna, Maria Salla, and for Cecile Jeanrenaud, his wife, who was one of the most beautiful women in Europe. But it is also the story of a different kind of love which became an dedication -- his love for the music of his great predecessor, Johann Sebastian Bach, and his fight to restore that music to its rightful place in the world. It was a love and a conviction for which he was willing finally to risk his marriage, his career and his health.